Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: BPMN Model Simulation

« on: February 08, 2009, 05:06:25 pm »

Well, I've been testing 7.5 since it came out and was mostly interested in the new features surrounding BPMN and BPEL. I have to admit that I haven't found it possible to simulate BPMN models so far. And yes, I agree if EA were to have something like that it would really become a very powerful tool - more than it is right now of course.

2

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Reporting actors with every use case?

« on: August 12, 2008, 03:26:27 am »

I for one understand what you're going through. I had a similar situation and ended up generating document which included everything and then manually removing unnecessary data.
I would like nothing more but to see RTF generator being "beefed" up with some conditional parameters (i.e. WHERE Element.Type="Actor") in place of tags so that certain information can be included based on the certain characteristics or properties of an element (I use element very loosely here to imply every tag in the document).
I had a lot of previous experience generating documentation out of Rational SODA and even though I didn't like it (very buggy and "sensitive') it had such functionality as specifying conditions prior to generating a document.
I know we can resort to programming (done that too) and get information out of EA using EA's automation interface but that's not that simple and not easily understandable by the average user.
Having said this, your only option is to resort to the suggestion from "ged" and use in your document a section where you can dump "Package->Diagram->Element" and then cut everything else from there but Actors. Another one is to use Connector->Source->Element with Element.FullName and Element.Type included. That way you can see which elements are of type of Actor and remove the other ones.
Unfortunately, as you can see manual workaround is required. I guess that's with every documentation we have to deal with - you kind of have to spend some time typing and formatting  
Regards,

D

3

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Element List improvements

« on: November 14, 2007, 12:37:05 pm »

I'm not quite sure about the 2nd point but for the first one I know I would like to have the ability to select multiple, i.e. requirements in the diagram or the element list and through context menu select properties and change, maybe not all but some of them to a value that will be cascaded to each selected element.
For me, this is extremely useful when setting up in example the Status property on Requirements/Features/Use Cases. As it stands right now I have to change each element separately or resort to back door and update it through repository and SQL statements  

4

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Element List improvements

« on: October 26, 2007, 05:27:15 am »

I concur! I would very much like this feature as well.

5

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Poll: Open up reverse engineering

« on: December 03, 2007, 01:48:31 pm »

I agree with Thomas' statement but I do give my vote for this.

6

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Code generation - documentation

« on: August 21, 2007, 06:09:28 am »

Yes, yes and yes - this gets my vote too!!!

7

Suggestions and Requests / Re: IDEA: "beam me up Scotty"

« on: November 09, 2007, 03:20:36 pm »

Add my vote too! Very useful to have indeed.

8

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Newbie Questions

« on: October 22, 2007, 07:51:34 am »

3) You may have tried this but it doesn't hurt to ask: Did you try Set Label Visibility and play with options there?

9

Suggestions and Requests / Re: General Types - Requirements

« on: September 22, 2007, 07:29:54 pm »

I have checked it in version 7.0 and there's still a 12 character limit on this field.
However, in the meantime you could do it yourself. All you have to do is change it to be larger and to do that you have to change the length of the Requirement field in table "t_requiretypes". If you have an eap project file (local project file) then you need to open it in MS Access (simple Open With would work), version 97 unfortunately and perform the change. If you have higher version of MS Access then you need to up-convert to at least version 2000 and then back to version 97 (Caution: This will not work with Access 2007). Alternatively, if you have your project in DBMS repository, like SQL Server then you need to do the same but through that DBMS tool or simple ALTER TABLE statement.
I've just tried it and it worked.

10

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Simulation capability in Business Process Mode

« on: August 27, 2007, 03:18:54 pm »

I share your thoughts on BPM as I am using EA to model complex business processes. I was really glad that EA came up with BPMN in the first place considering that some of the higher-priced tools do not have that capability. Having said this, I absolutely agree with the idea that EA comes up with not only simulation capability but also BPEL code generation so that the model can be ported to a BPM server. One can only hope that this will become reality.
However, I do take my hats of to Sparxians (as most of "senior" forum members like to refer to Sparx personnel) for making one solid tool and keeping the cost low and consistent.
Nonetheless, I would definitely pay a bit more for an added capability of having aforementioned capability when it comes to business process modeling.
Cheers

D

11

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Database selector needed in Package

« on: August 27, 2007, 03:22:54 pm »

Add my vote too! I am also involved in Enterprise-wide architecture where multiple DBMS are used and will continue to be. Having something like this would definitely benefit my projects.

12

General Board / Time for a new EA sample model?

« on: March 31, 2009, 06:58:53 am »

Just a thought really, but isn't a long overdue that we have an updated EA sample model that outlines the new features and perhaps provide a model of something else but Online Book Store.
I have used a sample model from version 6 in all my demos to users and colleagues which I had to significantly enhance (read: bolt in or on the new packages/diagrams) to outline, in example, new BPMN modeling features, brainstorming, and to name a few.
We are at the version 7.5 now and although I see few additions to sample model it still does not reflect the true power of this otherwise very good tool.
Also, the base EA file is still based on Access 97 which, from my perspective at least, is an unsupported MS tool. Perhaps moving it to a newer version would not be that bad. I helped a few businesses to adopt EA for modeling and their use of Access is at this point the only way and so is mining of the data in the database as well creating reports.
Nevertheless, my kudos to Sparx team for job well done with EA.
Regards,

D!

13

General Board / Re: Enterprie Architect and RequisitePro

« on: February 13, 2008, 10:17:34 am »

Depending on the ReqPro version that you have there is an open source ReqPro add-in for EA that will allow you to import requirements from Requisite Pro to EA. It is not fully developed but it provides a solid start. You can always extend it with an additional functionality.
You can get it from here:
http://eareqpro.cvs.sourceforge.net/eareqpro/

Regards,

Bax

14

General Board / Re: Best diagram to model layered architecture

« on: January 15, 2008, 09:02:00 am »

I fully agree with this request as I was in the similar situation. Just to note that every other UML modeling tool I have used (RSA, MagicDraw, VS, and yes, even NetBeans) have allowed me to make multiple copies (not instances if I have chosen so) of the same artifact on the diagram. I found this very useful when creating multiple architectural views.
However, considering that EA and alike tools are designed for the sole purpose of software design I do not necessarily agree with the statement about the clutter. I think the main purpose of these kind of tools like EA is to simplify the process of modeling by allowing us to create simple and concise diagrams that can be drilled down to further detailed ones. Most of them lack the "System" perspective and are, IMHO, solely focused on "Software" design and architecture. For former I have to resort to some other tools which again brakes the traceability that I am so keen on preserving.
I do hope that EA will address this issue though.
Regards,

D

15

General Board / Re: BPMN Pools and relationships

« on: February 15, 2008, 09:27:31 am »

I do not know if you can do that in Relationship Matrix, however, I usually resort to Element List for such task. Right-click package in Project Browser and from the context menu choose Show Element List. The tree structure will show you every container (in your case <<pool>> is what you're interested) with corresponding elements it contains.
I hope this helps.

Bax